Linux Foundation Membership

As open source adoption grows, commerce and society come to depend on that code. The future of critical technologies such as Linux, Node.js, Hyperledger, and others can’t be left to chance. They need a neutral, independent organization to manage the infrastructure and sustain their communities over the long term.

More than half of all Global 2000 software and telecom companies are members of The Linux Foundation and our projects. They know their contributions not only help accelerate their own technology and innovation, they’re critical to developing billion-dollar markets and ensuring that modern society continues to run on open source.

Move markets and help support critical code. Join more than 1,000 supporters of The Linux Foundation and our projects in building and sustaining open source technologies.

Member Stories

“The Linux Foundation is home to Linux, Node.js and other mission critical projects that form the backbone of modern internet services, including Pinterest. Joining The Linux Foundation is a great way for established companies like ours to support those communities.”

Jon Parise, Technical Architecture Lead and Open Source Program Lead at Pinterest

“Becoming a Gold member of The Linux Foundation is a logical step for us in order to “do well while doing good.” We do well because the assets and software tools that are developed as open source software form a core element of our product as we make those apps available as a super fast and reliable cloud service. We do good as our Gold membership is one way we are giving back to and supporting the community.”

Francesco Tripepi, Founder and CEO of Doky Inc.

“In an ever changing world, contributions and support of the open source community are more crucial than ever to help expedite the developments we make as a technological society.”

Mo Alkady, Founder of Hart

“We’ve been one of the bedrock members of The Linux Foundation since its inception. We have a long history of doing open source projects throughout many communities. (But) there are things we couldn’t do before that we can now do, working in partnership with The Linux Foundation. “If we were to take a project, open source it ourselves, and expect people to come to that project, that’s a very difficult path. But when you do it in partnership with The Linux Foundation, that path gets smoothed.”

Todd Moore, VP of Open Technology at IBM

Benefits of Membership

Industry Leadership

Ability to govern and create new open source projects with The Linux Foundation

Access to Linux Foundation executives for open source strategy discussions

Entry to exclusive, invite-only open source leadership summits focused on technical, compliance, and business topics

Prominent placement of your organization’s brand on The Linux Foundation’s social networks and web properties, which receive more than 1.4 million unique monthly visitors

Potential seat on the Board of Directors

Legal Leadership

Invitation to exclusive legal conferences to discuss and help shape the industry’s open source legal strategy, including our annual Legal Summit, Open Compliance Summit, and legal tracks at the Open Source Leadership Summit

Access to bimonthly legal counsel conference calls

Direct access to our open source compliance experts for ad hoc discussions ranging from potential new projects to internal program office structures and processes

Technical Leadership

The ability to create new technical workgroups and collaborate in a neutral setting to solve pressing Linux or open source issues

Direct access to technical decision-makers of the Linux platform

Opportunities for leadership roles in Linux Foundation initiatives

Community Leadership

Invitations to guest speak at member events

Ability to attend Open Source Leadership Summit

Ability to participate in our Matchmake a Mentor program, where you’ll pair up with a prolific open source developer to get advice on technical and open source matters

Seminars on working with the open source community and driving member contributions to upstream projects

Additional Benefits

Press release announcing membership

Private seminars on open source business, legal, and technical matters

Discounts on corporate onsite or live virtual technical training

Membership rights and commitments are described in detail in the Bylaws. Detailed benefits by membership level are available upon request. Please fill out an inquiry below for more details.

If you are looking to join one of our hosted projects, please visit The Linux Foundation Projects. Also note that we do not have an IP policy for The Linux Foundation membership, as the IP terms are defined by each project’s entity bylaws or charters under The Linux Foundation. The projects each define their own terms for intellectual property contributions and commitments (e.g., licenses) and funding models.

No single company or person can develop such large and important resources. The Linux Foundation brings together companies and individual contributors to build the greatest shared technology in history. We provide the events, training and certification, open source best practices, marketing, and promotion necessary to build, scale, and sustain critical open source projects and communities.

To inquire about your company becoming a corporate member of The Linux Foundation, and about specific membership benefits based on the different levels of membership we offer, please complete the form below. We will respond to you within two business days.